


No Boundaries

by Leydhawk



Category: Captain America (Movies), Glee
Genre: M/M, Multi, abandoned work, will add tags as I reread to post
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:22:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27529912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leydhawk/pseuds/Leydhawk
Summary: Steve is not long out of the ice, walking around lonely and hears a voice singing in a club. The voice sang his own hurt and pain and confusion, and the man singing is extraordinary.Follow the ups and downs of Steve Rogers and Elliott Gilbert through some canon and au Avengers plots which bring in a Winter Soldier Bucky attempting to piece himself back together and the stalwart, mouthy Sam Wilson as they all fall in love and work through everything life throws at them.
Relationships: Elliott “Starchild” Gilbert/James “Bucky” Barnes, Elliott “Starchild” Gilbert/Steve Rogers/James “Bucky” Barnes/Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/Elliott “starchild” Gilbert, Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson
Kudos: 1





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I’m labeling this story as abandoned since I stopped writing it in chapter 16. But, y’know, 16 chapters and some notes on how else it might’ve gone? Might be worth reading if you’re interested. If not, well, it’s here if anyone else is willing to take the chance.

Waking up to an entirely different future world was horrifying. 

The weight of having lost everyone he’d ever known along with that was completely incomprehensible. How does one grieve a loss that big?

Every time Steve’s brain tried to grasp it, the sensation of trying to hold a fistful of sand pervaded him, and when he squeezed tighter, he’d find the jagged glass at the center of the grains that leaked away and be cut to the bone anew: Bucky. Bucky was gone. 

The loss of his best friend was still sharp from what seemed like only weeks ago, and somehow felt more real than the loss of all he’d known. 

Nightmares plagued him, not of the lack of the familiar world, but of the stalwart presence of James Barnes. 

Bucky had been ever-present in Steve’s life, and it had been unimaginable to lose him on the train. He’d barely had time to move through a brief agony before numbness had set it, and then he’d been on the plane, and then in the cold dark, welcoming the thought of seeing his mom again, of meeting his dad, and of the greeting he’d get from Bucky. 

Heaven had been denied him. 

He was stuck, in this bizarre world, which would have been tolerable if he’d had his best friend at his side. 

Instead, Steve had nothing but a hollow chest and a strange commander who was allowing him time to spend in New York before he knew he’d be asked or ordered into missions and fights. 

When he had to, Steve could turn on the charm and smile the smile and be the cardboard Captain America he’d been trained to be on the USO tour, and people ate it up. They never looked past it. 

Until one night, when Steve was wandering the streets, lost in memories, he’d caught the sound of a voice that held an edge to it that rang a familiar tone; it held a suppressed anguish that called him into the bar and down to a spot near the small stage. 

The man singing was young, and his face had angles that echoed another face, and eyes of a similar shade... He sang of loneliness and Steve was mesmerized until the set was finished, and he headed for the coat check, walking through a haze of ghostly thoughts and longing. 

It was a turning point for him. 

Looking back, Steve Rogers could pinpoint that particular night as the time when pieces started setting into place that would lead him to learn the depths of his own heart and that with love, there are no boundaries: not even death.


	2. Another Lonely Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elliott and Steve start to get to know each other.

It was the eyes that caught him. 

Elliott loved looking out over the crowd when he performed and noticing various people and engaging briefly in eye contact, but this time, he was captured by the incredible sadness and longing in a pair of blue eyes set in a stunningly gorgeous face, and he couldn’t look away. 

After he finished his set and relinquished the stage to the karaoke machine, Elliott headed straight for the man who had so enthralled him, hustling to reach him before he left. 

“Hey, where are you going?” Elliott asked, leaning in close as the man waited at the coat check. 

He didn’t startle, like Elliott expected, but merely turned his head. 

“I don’t know, actually,” the man said. Elliott’s breath caught at the resonance of the voice and he had to blink to call up his best charming smile. 

“Then why not stay? Have a drink with me,” Elliott suggested. 

“Alcohol doesn’t do much for me,” he said, lips twisting slightly. He thanked the coat check attendant and slipped on a brown leather jacket. 

Elliott ducked his head and locked gazes with him, seeing only polite attention. 

The guy had obviously shut down. 

“Please? Earlier, you looked like you could use a friendly shoulder, man.”

He looked away, his jaw tightening, and Elliott wondered if he had chosen the wrong tactic, going with blatant honesty. 

“Maybe a walk outside?” The man finally said, meeting Elliott’s eyes again, and Elliott saw a bit of the raw emotion he’d identified while he sang. 

“Yeah, man. Fresh air sounds good.”

Elliott had to ask him to wait while he ran backstage for his black trench coat and worried slightly that the guy would bug out, but there he was, leaning against the wall a little ways from the door to the bar. 

“I’m Elliott,” he offered, holding out his hand. 

“Steve,” the man said, and shook. 

Turning in tandem, they began to walk, and Elliott settled in comfortably, their strides similar length. 

“Your voice is...really remarkable,” Steve eventually said. 

“Thanks. I’m in school but I definitely think this my intended profession. What do you do?”

The silence that greeted the question lasted much longer than Elliott expected, but he just waited, walking. 

“I was in the Army.”

Elliott nodded. “Well that makes sense.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Steve’s voice was suddenly sharp. 

“With what I saw in your eyes, from the stage. The...desolation.”

“I’m not desolate.” 

And now defensive. 

“Okay.”

“Hey, I’m not, I’m just... The world, it...isn’t like I remember it.”

Elliott thought about that. He’d heard about PTSD and how severely it could affect soldiers after they returned to their normal lives. 

“My Dad’s uncle served in Vietnam. He had a hard time after he came home. A very hard time.”

Steve was quiet again for a couple of blocks. “I just...I lost everything. There’s...there’s no one...”

Elliott put his hand on Steve’s arm. “When you lose everything, you have everything to gain, Steve. You have the chance to make your life whatever you want it to be.”

Steve stopped and Elliott halted as well, turning to look at him. Steve studied Elliott, his eyes seeming to search. 

“You...you remind me of someone.”

Elliott smiled. “I’m okay with that.”

Steve chuckled at the response. 

They began walking again. 

“Was he a singer?”

“Bucky, oh gosh no! Couldn’t carry a tune in a sack. But...” Steve’s eyes wandered over Elliott and he nodded. “But you’ve both got a pretty amazing smile.”

“So the name didn’t come from his teeth?”

“Ha! No...no.”

They walked on, but there was a camaraderie that there hadn’t been before, and Elliott felt a warmth from Steve that made him smile as he walked. 

“You wanna, um, go to my place?”

Steve looked at him. “And do what?”

Elliott hesitated. Maybe he’d read Steve wrong? “Um, anything you want. Sit. Talk. I could play my guitar... Or...?”

“Are you offering what I think you’re offering?” There was no denying the curiosity and dawning interest expressed by the raised eyebrows with the enticing line between them. 

Elliott just smiled. “Let’s get a cab.”

And Steve didn’t argue. 

=*=

They were barely inside the door when the tension ratcheted up to unbearable and Elliott moved close and kissed Steve. 

Finding Steve’s response tentative, Elliott eased up and the kiss became soft and much sweeter than Elliott would have imagined. He’d figured that if he reminded Steve of someone else that Steve would have dived in fiercely, but instead, Elliott sensed a longing and awkwardness that had him quickly enveloping Steve in an embrace. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to get him to forget the other guy. 

Elliott broke away, kissing lightly on the corner of Steve’s mouth, then his jaw. Drawing back Elliott met Steve’s gaze and waited, uncertain what was going to happen next. 

Steve nodded and murmured Elliott’s name, and Elliott smiled and dropped his trench and shoved Steve’s jacket off his shoulders and pulled him toward the couch. 

“We-we should hang those up,” Steve protested, which made Elliott laugh. 

“Yeah, probably. I’ll get ‘em later,” Elliott assured, and pushed Steve onto the center of the sofa and straddled his lap. 

The way Steve’s breath caught at that made Elliott grin, and the grin obviously appealed to Steve, because he grabbed Elliott’s face and slammed their mouths together again. 

Elliott groaned into the assault and ran his hands down Steve’s sides, shuddering at the physique he felt through Steve’s shirt. 

Muscles...so many muscles...

Encouraging Steve to lay down, Elliott started to lay on top of him. 

“Shoes,” Steve said, tearing himself away from Elliott’s mouth like he was being pried off.

Elliott laughed out loud. “You were certainly raised right, weren’t you?” He had to sit up to pull his platform boots off, glad that he’d worn the ones with the zipper rather than the ones that laced up to his knees. 

Steve had his shoes off long before Elliott did, and when Elliott looked up, Steve was staring. 

“You’re tall. Why do you wear boots like that?”

Elliott shrugged. “They look awesome and I like the weight of them. Makes me feel grounded. Protects my toes, too.”

A puzzled frown crossed Steve’s face, but faded when Elliott pushed insistently on his chest and Steve reclined, his head resting on the arm of the couch. Elliott did his best to move sensually as he settled on top, laying flat out on the amazing bed of muscles. 

“Mm. Feels good,” Steve murmured. 

“You too, babe. Never been with a bodybuilder before,” Elliott replied and silenced the protest on Steve’s lips with a kiss. 

Making out, listening to the gasps and low whines he could wring from Steve made Elliott feel powerful. He rolled his hips again and again against the very large hardness beneath him, his mind going to thoughts of blowing Steve, straining to take his size and looking up across a massive chest to see how he could take this incredibly strong man apart. 

When he finally couldn’t wait any longer, Elliott sat up and started unbuttoning Steve’s shirt. 

Steve’s hands covered his, and Elliott looked up into his eyes. 

“I’ve never...with a man...” Steve said softly, looking unsure. 

“It’s okay. We won’t do anything you don’t wanna do, Steve,” Elliott said, smiling and returning to his task. 

“But what if...” Steve began. Elliott looked at him again. “...I wanna do everything?”

Elliott was suddenly certain that he’d misread Steve’s ardor. Damn. He cupped Steve’s face. “Steve, honey...” He looked away for a moment. “I’m okay that I caught your attention because I remind you of Bucky, but I don’t wanna be just a placeholder.”

And if that didn’t completely destroy the moment, and the sensual mood. 

Steve grew defensive and withdrew, looking guilty, and they retreated to opposite ends of the sofa. 

Elliott resigned himself to no further physical contact and instead tried to draw Steve out emotionally. 

“So tell me more about Bucky,” Elliott suggested. 

They talked off and on for the rest of the night. Elliott did get Steve to tell him more about Bucky, and they even laughed some, especially about stories from the duo’s youth. Imagining Steve as a skinny, poor kid, son of a widowed mother, protected against his will by a friend with whom he’d been in love painted a more complete picture of who Steve was for Elliott. Steve in turn asked all kinds of questions about Elliott and his interests and life. Elliott introduced Steve to glam rock and David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, playing a couple of videos for him, and Elliott confessed that he’d always wanted to use a stage name in homage to the performer. Steve encouraged him to do it, and Elliott decided he’d think about it more seriously again. 

“Although I can’t imagine wanting to wear makeup and stuff,” Steve said, looking puzzled but accepting that Elliott was okay with that. 

As silver-gray light began to filter in through the curtains, their discussion wound down and eventually Elliott sat slumped over with his head on Steve’s shoulder as they held hands. 

“I would really like to see you again, Steve. Even just as friends,” Elliott said quietly. Steve’s fingers tightened and then loosened, a gentle squeeze. 

“I’d like to stay in touch with you, too. But I’m going to Washington D.C. soon. For work.”

“You have a phone, right? We can text, and call... And even Skype or FaceTime.”

“Yeah, um, you might have to help me with that.”

Elliott looked at him. “As long as you’re not dodging me, I’d be happy to show you how that works.”

Steve’s lips curled in a half smile. “I’m honest to a fault, Ell. You can show me that stuff this morning.”

Eventually, Elliott made breakfast, Steve hung their coats up, and they had a boringly domestic morning. 

Steve picked up the use of his cell phone readily when Elliott showed him its features, and they made a practice FaceTime call. Elliott screencapped a moment of Steve giving him a bashful smile and set that as his contact picture. Steve caught him doing it, and insisted on taking a picture of Elliott so he’d have a contact photo as well. Elliott made sure his eyeliner hadn’t smeared too badly and gave a smoldering smile that made Steve’s cheeks turn pink as he took the picture. 

When Elliott yawned a third time in five minutes, Steve began making motions to leave. 

“You could stay. We could catch some z’s and then go get lunch.”

Steve pressed his lips together. “I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”

“I’m saying you’re not,” Elliott insisted. 

Steve seemed torn, but shook his head. “I should get back. I’m due in Washington tomorrow and I don’t want them to have to come looking for me.”

“You sound like a wanted man!” Elliott observed, chuckling. 

“You’re not wrong. I guess I’m still property of the US government.”

The wistfulness in Steve’s voice made Elliott pause. 

“Hey, I don’t wanna be a mother hen, but... I think you should talk to someone. You’ve been through a lot, and... Well, there’s support through the VA for soldiers, okay? People who can understand better.”

“Thanks, man. I’ll...I’ll consider it.”

When Elliott saw him to the door, Steve hesitated before he kissed him. The kiss was soft and sweet and made Elliott ache with the simplicity and finality of it. 

“Stay in touch, will ya?” Elliott said quietly, trying not to plead but yearning for more with the gorgeous, lonely man who had lost so much but seemed so genuinely good. 

“I said I would.”

“Alright, then.”

Elliott leaned in for another kiss, then reluctantly let Steve go.

**Author's Note:**

> Same sn on tumblr if you wanna chat.


End file.
